Alright, so in a previous blog post I mentioned how the music and language found in my favorite shows had influenced me. However, I now want to explain and critique some of the genres of my favorite shows.
I really enjoy watching anime and reading manga. These are like the Japanese version of our comics and cartoons. This is going to be a rough description, so bear with me! Manga/anime fulfill most of the categories that Western culture would expect. There is horror, mystery, action, and romance. However, there is a type of genre that I find fascinating.
“Slice of Life:” Slice of Life is a genre that I have only really encountered as an established genre in manga/anime. I once saw an American movie called “A Walk in the Woods,” which I would almost describe as falling into the Slice of Life genre. This genre means that there is no real plot line, no falling action, or rising action. It is simple showing how one person or a group of people are living their day-to-day lives. Sometimes it can be very humorous, because the person is experiencing random and crazy events that people may or may not experience in their everyday life. Or, it can be very depressing, because life is not always a fun experience. Either way, I find it so interesting that Japanese culture has such a genre that just follows a person’s life story, without having all the expected plot points that my Western heritage has taught me to expect.
I think it would be cool to study the history behind the “Slice of Life” genre to see why it appears in Japanese culture and not Western or American culture. Unless, someone else has found such a genre in American/Western culture? If so, I would love to hear about it.
When I was a kid I really like Dragon Ball Z. I could not get enough of that show, there was so much action that it kept my full attention the entire time. I became such a fine that I bought these huge mangas that held entire dragon ball books within the pages. I would always read those on really long car trips from here to Michigan. That whole series was definitely entertaining.